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Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Answers

Answers to email Questions

I answer questions from friends and readers usually via email or messaging, depending on the site and the messaging tool. But some questions make for fruitful discussion. So here are a few answers to questions.

Over there on the facebook I spoke about issues with my thyroid. As a result of sharing there on my friends only page, I received a couple emails, deeply concerned that I had cancer, from people not on my friends list. I do not know yet if I have cancer or not, I will need to have biopsy and treatment, regardless. I was sleeping long hours, unable to get warm, I would eat normal portions and gain huge amounts of weight. I knew something was wrong. The same doctor that discovered my first cancer found this. She is a wonderful doctor.

I was asked if I will do more comic book work in the future. My written work is in limbo outside of poems for my blog, works in edits and formatting for print, and the occasional post such as this, due to my health. I am sick and haven't been able to get healthy. I will say, I want to improve on my art work, and I do wish I could do so quickly.

A friend who is on the left side of the political equation asked my views on Obamacare. I hate it. But I hate it because it left as players Insurers and For Profit Hospitals. I believe in single payer. That answer would shock a great number of people thinking that I am a conservative, but I am not of the American template of conservative. I believe in the state being responsible for the citizens' safety, well being, and defense.

What stuff is coming out I was asked? I have two books coming out. One is a long look at who I am, what it takes to be a poet, and what does it even mean to be a poet? The other is about war. Enter Oblivion is about past wars, how we view it, how we seem to love it, and why do we love it.

In one email I was called a reactionary. I am not. I simply said if a person has a fence around their home, but says a border fence is racist, that they were being a hypocrite. The concept that we should give our nation's assets freely but be able to keep our personal items as private and our own is a very large cheat. I don't believe we need a border fence if we make our borders to mean something, and we don't give out citizen benefits to others who are not citizens. Why bother to go through the process, the long and perhaps frustrating process, if you can get all of the benefits without the paper chase. That said, I do believe in immigration being open and fair. I don't believe in quotas being used against the "brown" people or the disadvantaged. I simply think we need to enforce our laws and do the right thing thereafter.

An emailer suggested that I am secretly a Trump voter. I might not despise him in ways the Democrats I know despise him, I have only contempt for him as a person. I suspect he might not be as full of shit as some believe, there is some merit to the idea of running government as a business, which is what my father, a life long democrat believed. He also owned two Trump books and believed Trump would have made a great president. My dad didn't live to see Trump. But as foul and despicable as Trump is, I think my dad would have voted for him. I could not. While I am not a fan of Trump, Clinton scared me in other areas. As I've noted prior, BHObama or GWBush would have womped the shit out of either of these two.

What would my greatest so far unrealized project be? This is hard to answer more than any other question because it points to my flaws as a creator, to the secret projects I still have brewing, and hopes and failings that haven't yet occurred.

I want to do a couple or three big question anthologies that ask questions to smart people in any field and allow those who respond to go in any direction they might. The question asked would be about a single area of history, or culture where one thing happened or famously didn't and then follow the consequences of that. I don't want to be the editor. I stink at that. I want to write it, but I am not great at prose. And the people might do it are not highly recognizable so, in order to make it work I'd need money to make it happen. So I think this project is D.O.A.

I have some skills still in art, and I would possibly like to do 20-30 pen, ink and watercolor paintings, and write stories and poems to create a book of moody work. However, my arthritis is worse with every passing day. My skills erode and what little talent I had, ever, has flown. So I think this project is D.O.A.

I want to do a comic with Jason Moser. He is a very talented artist and I love him as a person. He and his wife are wonderful people. This is one of the three items that I think could happen, maybe after the thyroid is dealt with we can write a script or something. ASYLUM INK is Jason's site.

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Thank you for reading this.

I'll try to post more of these in the future, as I have many answers to questions I can give.